The first Soviet world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, who held the title on and off for 15 years, absolutely loathed blitz and speed chess. The patriarch considered it superficial, never played it, and forecast a dumbed down future for those who did.

It was one cause for his lifelong feud with his 1951 challenger David Bronstein, who spent his spare moments even during their match banging out five-minute clock games in Moscow's Central Club.

Barely a decade after Botvinnik's death, blitz and rapid chess are booming in the former USSR, with little evidence that its exponents suffer in slow tournaments. This month two speed events attracted top-calibre entries.

The Moscow five-minute blitz went to Russia's three best active grandmasters: Alex Grischuk and Alex Morozevich 15/20, Peter Svidler 14. In the Keres Memorial in Estonia Anatoly Karpov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Vassily Ivanchuk tied with 7/9. These entertaining games are from Tallinn.